This invention relates to cases for holding a plurality of containers, and more particularly to a case that can be stacked onto a second case of similar construction when both cases are filled to capacity, and nested inside the second case when both cases are empty.
Beverages, such as milk and soda, are generally sold at the retail level in individual containers of well-known size and shape. The beverage containers, which are often made of glass, plastic or paper constituents, are usually packed in predetermined quantities in cases for delivery from a bottler or container filling location to a distributor or retail outlet.
Since enormous quantities of such containers are transported from the filling location or distributor to the retailer, on a daily or weekly basis, it has long been a practice in the industry to provide reusable delivery cases. The reusable delivery cases are normally made of wood or plastic formed into a rigid, durable box-type structure.
One popular type of reusable delivery case made of plastic and known as a full-depth case, accommodates the entire height of containers packed therein and can be stacked onto other fully packed delivery cases. Generally the fully packed delivery cases are stacked on pallets in a predetermined fashion to facilitate loading and unloading of a transport vehicle. After the delivery cases are unloaded and unpacked they must be returned to the container filling location for reuse in packing newly filled containers.
Although empty delivery cases weigh substantially less than full cases, they occupy the same storage volume as a fully loaded delivery case. Consequently, the fuel costs for returning a cargo of empty delivery cases from a retailer back to a container filling location is essentially the same as the fuel costs for transporting the fully loaded cases from the container filling location to the retailer.
As fuel costs continue to increase, the burden of transporting empty cases at a cost that compares to that of delivering fully loaded cases becomes more and more objectionable. For a long time however, this problem has defied solution.
Oftentimes a cargo of loaded cases delivered to a retailer is not immediately unpacked. After the delivery cases are eventually unpacked they are temporarily stored at the retail facility for later pickup and return to the container filling location. Storage of empty delivery cases at a retail facility is a considerable problem since space is held at a premium. Consequently the empty delivery cases are often stored in an outside area so that the interior storage space can be used for incoming goods.
However, outdoor storage of empty delivery cases also presents further problems. Delivery cases left outdoors are often purloined to an extent that has aroused the concern of retailers and packers, who now expend additional money in theft prevention techniques and in financing organizations that attempt to recover stolen delivery cases.
It is thus desirable to provide a delivery case for containers which, when fully packed, can be stacked on other fully packed delivery cases but which takes up substantially less storage space when empty by being nestable in other similar empty delivery cases.